


It's Quiet Uptown

by Nextredpaladin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Shiro (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), I don't really know what this is, Langst, Lotor is good though, M/M, Zarkon is mentioned but that boi is dead, i don't know yet, shitposting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-19
Updated: 2017-07-24
Packaged: 2018-11-02 13:12:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10945215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nextredpaladin/pseuds/Nextredpaladin
Summary: After the final fight with Zarkon that led to his demise the paladins and the Alteans were left with six broken hearts and a missing blue paladin.(I'm shit at summaries forgive me)





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This one is kinda short, but they'll get longer once it's further into the book. I also posted this on Wattpad so yeah!

Lance had an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach while they were fighting Zarkon, after Voltron had formed their flaming sword Zarkon started to practically disintegrate. While Zarkon was expelling light and disintegrating Voltron started breaking apart, right before all of the energy from around Zarkon burst, Lance threw his steering wheel up to protect Shrio. Then everything went black.

\- 

Keith opened his eyes and saw the wreckage that Zarkon had caused. 

"Did we do it?" Shrio's voice said over the intercom. 

"Is it over?" Hunk questioned. Keith looked around more and saw that most of the Lions were still, but the eyes were lit up, all except Lance's which was odd. 

"...We need to go!" He heard Coran over the intercom and slowly sat up before starting to fly back to the castle. He looked over and saw that Blue still wasn't moving. 

"Lance!" Keith called out worriedly, hopping for a response from the blue paladin. 

"We have to tow him back onto the ship!" Pidge said before going over with Keith and picking the lion up, quickly getting all of the Lions and their paladins back to the ship. 

As soon as Pidge and Keith had put Blue in her hanger Pidge spoke through the com. "Princess, we're all on board." After the princess got their message they were going through the wormhole.

As soon as the jump was done Keith started running towards the blue lions hangar, breathing heavily as worry and dread filled his chest. Was Lance dead? He hoped not, but couldn't help himself from preparing for the worst. 

Everyone trailed behind Keith as he ran. "Lance?" Keith called out, trying to see if maybe now they would get a response. As soon as Keith got to Blue, she opened up for him and he stepped inside.  "Lance..?" he called out again, not seeing anyone or any sign of anyone. Only his bayard remained in its holder that came out of the lion when it was needed in combat. 

Everyone circled round the pilot chair as they stared at it in disbelief. "He's gone.." Shiro said softly, starting to tear up. The whole crew going silent as they stared into the seat.

-

Lance woke up choking on air, he looked around and realized the walls were moving. Was he being carried? He pondered on the possibility before his chest got uncomfortable from the deep inhales he was taking, his body shaking as he started coughing, falling out of the person's arms.

"I'm sorry, blue paladin." a voice said to the right of Lance. He looked up to see traditional Galra uniform and instantly scooted away, but continued to look up. The person had lavender skin, long white hair and yellow eyes that were amazingly shaped. For being Galra, this guy was pretty hot, Lance thought, smiling and coughing again. 

"Where is my lion? DId you kidnap me? How did I get here? " Lance said in a weak voice, his throat not being content with how it was feeling. He started coughing again and looked up to the Galra.

"I do not know the location of your lion, I did not kidnap you and you just appeared on my ship, paladin." the person spoke in a strong voice, his voice wasn't legato like some of the other Galra he met, this one had very strong and noticeable diction. 

"Who are you?" Lance wheezed out while wishing Hunk was there with his inhaler. 

The Galra scooped Lance up in his arms and started carrying him again before looking down. "My name is Lotor. I am the new Emperor."


	2. 351

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You get a bit of how things are going in the castle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Funny story: as i was writing this my uncle had a heart attack and is in the hospital in critical condition, so please have him in your thoughts.

The first day seemed the hardest. After they had found Lance's chair to be empty they cried for hours in Blue's cockpit. In the middle of the night Pidge left the cockpit and grabbed blankets a pillows so the paladins could all sleep comfortably there. Maybe Lance would come back? Hopefully he would. Allura and Coran left a little after Pidge brought blankets, they had stated that they were going to try to track him down if they could.

Shiro was hit the hardest out of all of them. What ever happened to Lance was supposed to happen to him, he was the one that was supposed to be missing, but instead Lance sacrificed himself and that wasn't okay. This was Shiro's team, Shiro's responsibility and it was his fault their teams sharpshooter was now missing. If only he had told Lance to back off when he noticed the Blue start traveling up, he could've saved him.

Keith felt awful. All they had done was fight and bicker and argue and tease each other in an unhealthy way and Keith had always hated the feeling of regret he got after another fight with Lance. He just wanted Lance to be okay and apologize for everything. Lance and his stupid idiot self would probably tease him, but Keith wouldn't care because at least Lance was there and he was okay and alive and not somewhere in space or worse.

Hunk hadn't stopped crying. He didn't really understand what had happened or when it happened, all he really knew for certain is that when they started that fight with Zarkon, Lance had been there safe in his pilot chair with them and when they came out of the fight he was gone. Ever since they had first met when they were 5 Lance and Hunk had been close and saw each other everyday. Even over the long summers when Lance would go to Cuba they still skyped as much as they could because they missed each other. The longest that they had ever spent not talking to each other was two days because Lance got grounded over the weekend for swearing in front of his younger siblings. All of Hunk's body ached in sorrow and despair, quietly longing for his best friend back.

Pidge had become to look at Lance like a bigger brother, well a middle child, older than them, but younger than Matt. It was because of this fact that losing Lance in this manor felt like the Kerberos mission all over again. Although this time they hoped that Lance was found quickly and easily. For a couple weeks now Lance and Pidge had been planning to finally learn Altean together, but they had postponed it until after they tried their big plan to defeat Zarkon. Pidge had also been a very big part in Lance's emotional life lately. Lance got homesick easily and often needed to be comforted and after Pidge had once found Lance crying in Blue they offered to help. Many nights Lance would come into their room late at night and mumble incoherent things in spanish before crying more as Pidge held onto him. The time that it was the worst is when Lance came into their room in the middle of the night talking about how he was useless to the team and how he should leave Voltron and although Pidge had decided to not alert the others about how Lance was talking now they wished they did.

"Guys, look, I. Lance and I have been getting close and when hed get homesick hed come to my room and seek comfort in me knowing that I was going through somewhat of the same thing. Most of the time he was speaking in spanish, but a few nights ago.. he.." Pidge suddenly spoke up before abruptly stopping their speech. Shiro at this point was sitting up, unlike a couple of minutes ago when he was laying down. 

"He what, Pidge?" Shiro asked in his best soft voice while still retaining the authoritative tone. Lance was so gonna kill them if he ever found out that they were doing this.

"He.. he doesn't think he belongs on the team and he thinks that he should leave because we'll just find someone to replace him anyway. He doesn't think he has a thing then proceed to tell me everyone else's thing and how he thought he was the team's sharpshooter, but he doesn't think anyone else thinks that. He thinks we don't really care for him or appreciate him because all we really do is yell at him or fight with him, we never try to actually talk to him. He just feels useless. At first I had thought all of these things were unrelated and just him rambling, but now that he's gone, what if he did this on purpose and was trying to disappear?" Pidge unloaded the information, tearing up while proceeding to do so. They felt lighter, but at the same time heavier with guilt.

Shiro looked at Pidge with heartbreak in his eyes. As they were explaining what Lance had felt and said he began to worry that maybe it was on purpose and he had hoped to disappear and g out with a bang and looking like a hero. He felt failed as a leader because he refused to constantly check up on the health of his fellow team members. 

"It is all my fault." Shiro spoke softly, sadness seeping through his voice. 

-

"New Emperor? What happened to Zarkon?" Lance spoke up again, this time his voice was stronger and his lungs didn't burn as much.

"You and your paladins did me a favor and destroyed him, he was a terrible father anyway." Lotor spoke softly before entering a room and setting Lance on a bed. "You're bleeding from your head." He said, getting up and walking towards another door. 

To say that Lance was freaking out was a huge understatement. Lance felt like his panic attacks took acid and smoked weed and this is what he was left with. Did Lotor just say that Voltron defeated Zarkon? And he was happy that they did? Lance shook his head, trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

Only a minute had passed before Lotor was back with a black towel, he placed it to the smaller boy's head, hoping to soak some of the blood up. Lance had another gash under his eye that went across his nose and half of his face, it almost looked like Shiro's. 

One of the guards came into the room and walked over to Lotor "Emperor Lotor, there is face call from The Castle of the Lions and they are expecting to hear from you." they said softly. 

Lance winced at the name and let out a shaky breath. "Get a witch for me and tell them to wait." Lotor spoke bitterly.

"It seems like the other paladins are looking for you, blue paladin." Lotor said as soon as the guard and looked at Lance curiously to observe his response.

"Don't mention me to them, they'll probably be disappointed in me for not doing something more." Lance spoke softly, the familiar feeling of doubt and self consciousness filled his chest as the sudden blood loss was starting to affect him. 

"Whatever you wish, blue paladin." Lotor said as a witch walked into the room.

"Yes, Emperor?" The witch asked with a legato voice, bowing in Lotor's presence. 

"Fix his wounds." He demanded and pointed to me, the witch nodded and walked over to him. 

Lance breathed in deeply, half wishing he could just sit there and bleed out so when Lotor finally accepted the call Voltron could move on and find someone better and smarter than he ever was or ever could be. They deserved better than Lance Fuentes piloting Blue, she deserved a better paladin. 

A sharp pain interrupted his degrading thoughts and he flinched as the witch started working of his cuts and bruises.

"Sir, the Castle of the Lions is getting extremely impatient.." the guard came back and spoke, looking at Lotor. He sighed softly and waved at the witch before leaving the room. 

Lance looked at the witch and studied the movements they were making. "I may need to do more later, you lost a lot of blood, blue paladin." the witch spoke softly.

"What qualifies as more..?" Lance questioned, looking past the witch. The witch moved away from Lance.

"Can you remove your armour, blue paladin, I need to see if you have any other injuries." the witch asked and Lance complied with the witch. 

He stripped off his armour and the witch healed his other wounds and then left the room. Even though Lance felt like crap he didn't exactly feel safe on the Emperor's ship. However, by removing his armour he gained a little more mobility so he could move swifter of his feet.

He peeked out of the doorway before he ran into the hallway, dodging any of the sentries that he saw in the hallways. He darted between all of the hallways until he got to a basic map. 351 hallways was what the board said. He ran down a hallway quickly, not looking behind him.

Lance suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right knee, yelling out in pain loudly he started crawling on the floor before he felt another pain in his left shoulder. One of the sentires found him and shot him. Twice. 

Lance saw black dots dance across his vision as he heard quick footsteps approaching him. "I thought I told Haggar to reprogram the sentries. This wasn't supposed to happen, we were supposed to make peace with the paladins! Not cause them to be in even more pain!" Lotor yelled loudly as he got close.

Lotor wrapped his arms around Lance and picked him up, carefully getting him to the druids to be fixed. The last thing Lance saw was Lotor's worried face looking down at him and Lotor mouthing that everything was going to be okay. And then the darkness surrounded him.


	3. Supermarket Flowers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotor gets a call from the Princess of Altea; The paladins are heartbroken and deal with the loss of one of their members; Lance gets himself stuck in a few sticky situations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm back with this fic, my uncle is okay now by the way! He's at home resting after a total organ failure and a virus attacking his heart (which is what we originally thought was a heart attack). Thank y'all for waiting!

Lotor sighed deeply and made his way to the bridge of the ship, looking up at the call screen. “Princess Allura, it's been quite a while, maybe around 10,000 years or so?” Lotor asked smugly, looking up at the princess and grinning. 

“I believe so, Lotor, and as always you never change.” Allura shot back before sighing. “However, I am not here to fight you, one of my paladins seems to be missing and vanished when we killed your father. We were wondering if you might have seen our blue paladin?” Allura asked, looking towards Lotor for an answer. 

The new emperor opened his mouth then closed it, remembering how Lance had told him not to reveal his location, Lotor obeyed the orders that Lance had given him and frowned softly before going back to a face void of emotion. “No, I haven’t. Why is this paladin so important anyway?” Lotor questioned the princess. 

“He is a vital aspect of our team, Lotor! He is our sharpshooter, our Lance, and most importantly our blue paladin. He is essentail for not only forming Voltron, but keeping the team in a stable mindset while we fight your father's fleets. We need our blue paladin. We need our Lance.” Allura shot back, looking almost disgusted. 

“Lotor, he is like the son I lost back on Altea, he’s such a fast learner too and he always tries to put his best foot forward. He is very intelligent and helps some of the team from losing their heads. He is extremely important to us, not only as teammates, but as friends.” Coran, the royal adviser that Lotor had somehow recognize, said. His eyes seemed misty. 

“I regret to inform you that I have not seen your beloved blue paladin.” Lotor lied through his teeth, regretting it instantly. 

Allura opened her mouth to say something before a piercing roar broke through the speakers, one of the lions roars. Allura mumbled a quick “Goodbye.” before hanging up. 

Lotor had absolutely no doubt that it was the blue lion that roared, but lions only made a sound like that when… when their paladin was in trouble. Lotor raced out of the room and back towards where he left Lance. 

“He went that way, sir.” Azula, his head general, said pointing to the right. Lotor nodded and waved to dismiss her. She nodded and he stormed off the hallway in the search of Lance. 

When Lotor found Lance he was in a pool of blood, his left arm was torn to shreds with shots and his right knee was practically hanging on by a thread. Lotor grabbed the gun from the sentry and shot it, growling angrily and shouting at two of his generals, Zilpha and Vada "I thought I told Haggar to reprogram the sentries. This wasn't supposed to happen, we were supposed to make peace with the paladins! Not cause them to be in even more pain!" They both winced at his roaring tone and left quickly, being led out of the area by Azula. 

Lotor rushed to Lance’s side and picks him up, looking down worriedly “It’s all going to be okay, Lance. It’s going to be okay, just stay awake.” Lotor rushed the younger man to one of the druids, looking down occasionally to see that he was unconscious.  
“Get him into a pod!” He screeched at the druid that was there. 

The druid shook their head “Sir, he’s too injured to just put him in a pod.” Lotor frowned deeply and looked worriedly at the boy.  
“Can you do what you did to The Champion?’ Lotor questioned. The druid nodded and began working. “Thank you.” I will be making sure the sentries get reprogrammed. Azula, Zilpha, Vada and Ora will be in a meeting. Don’t let him out of your sight and put him in a pod after you’re done helping him.” Lotor commanded then left the room in search of Haggar. 

-

Blues roar pierced through the air loud and clear. Shiro covered his ears and worriedly looked at the rest of the paladins. 

“Lance is hurt.” Pidge said before another roar broke the silence.

“What’s happening?” Allura said, glancing between the paladins. Each one of the paladins looked at Pidge to explain. 

“Remember when Keith was with the Blade and when Keith got hurt his lion called out for him then started attacking. Blue is doing the same thing, Lance was getting hurt, but whoever was hurting them seemed to have ceased or Blue is too tired to actually do anything. Either way that was not a good sound coming from Blue.” Pidge concluded, looking up at the lion and moved away slowly as the barrier started forming around her again. 

“No..” Keith said looking defeated. He ran over to the to the force field and banged on it. “Let me in! Where’s Lance? Is he okay? Talk to me, please!” Keith begged, banging more on the force field. 

Shiro ran up and collected the younger boy, bringing him out of the room. Keith thrashed around in Shiro’s arms to get away from him. “Let me go, Shiro! I didn’t throw away the Garrison just so he could abandon me now!” He yelled into Shiro’s face.

“You did what?” Shiro asked confused. Since when was Keith not in Garrison?

“He deserved it more than me, he worked harder and better and faster, he deserved having a chance to be a fighter pilot and I was the only thing holding him back. I gave him that chance Shiro, I gave him the chance to fulfill his dreams and do what he wanted to do because he deserved it more than I did!” Keith panted softly before continuing “He needed the chance to see how much he was worth. I acted out and made a fool of myself in front of everyone so they would have to expel me and he would get what he needed and deserved. He deserved so much more…” Keith trailed off, crying softly. “He deserved so much more, his family deserved so much more than this. He deserved more than dying in space because he was himself and just wanted to protect who he shamelessly had a crush on.” The smaller man quickly covered his mouth and flushed in regret. 

“What?” Shiro said more confused now, not really sure if he heard the last part. Half of him wanted to press for more answers, but the other half of him wondered if he should be concerned with the matter in such pressing times. “Nevermind, we can talk about this once Lance comes back.” Shiro said in a hushed tone, trying to not get too emotional. 

“Didn’t you hear me? Blue probably raised her shield because he’s dead, Shiro!” Keith yelled at Shiro, finally wiggling out of his arms and pushing him away.

“He can’t be dead, Keith!” Shiro started raising his voice, tears threatening to spill out of his ash eyes. “He can’t be dead! He just disappeared! He’s going to be fine!” Shiro yelled, a few tears falling from his eyes. 

“Keep lying to yourself, Takashi Shirogane, you’ll regret it when he doesn’t come back and you’re left heartbroken just like I was.” Keith stormed off, leaving a shocked group of mourning friends in his wake. 

Hunk walked over to Shiro and hugged him tightly, crying softly as well. “It’ll be okay, Shiro, we’ll get him back, we can do it.” Shiro laughed weakly.

“He’s not dead, right?” Shiro questioned softly, hiccuping softly. 

“I don’t know, but I’d like to think that he’s okay and that he’s just taking a break on some beach with crystal blue water and a light drizzle to keep himself happy.” Hunk tightened his arms around Shiro.

“Maybe he somehow got back to Earth and he’s visiting his family!” Pidge chipped in, joining the hug. 

“He wasn’t with Lotor, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t anywhere else in this galaxy, we’ll find him, Shiro.” Allura spoke softly, moving over to the group of paladins and awkwardly wrapping her arms around the black paladin. 

“We’ll catch him when he least expects it and he’ll be okay. Don’t worry, we all miss him too.” Coran says, trying to come up with something witty and uplifting. He walked over to the group and joined the hug.

“It’ll be okay, Shiro.” Allura said confidently. Shiro nodded his head in agreement and sighed contently.

The group stayed like this for a few moments before they dispersed to their rooms for some alone time. Shiro passed by Lance’s room on his way to his own room. Shiro stopped and put his hand on the door, smiling slightly when the door opened for him. 

Shiro stepped inside and closed his eyes, smiling lightly at the smell of Lance that filled his nose. Lance smelled like a soft lavender with mint, the smell of soap and supermarket flowers, it has always been a somewhat calming smell to Shiro, but this made Shiro feel like Lance was there.  
Shiro walked over to Lance’s bed and laid down, letting the smell of the younger boy overwhelm him as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep. 

-

Lance woke up, wincing slightly due to a dull pain in his head. He looked around slightly and moved his left arm, trying to move his hair out of his face. Lance only got a glimpse of the metal before yanking his hand away and looking at it. His hand looked almost exactly like Shiro’s, but it went up to his chest instead of just to his bicep. 

Panic filled Lance as he looked down and noticed that his right leg had been replaced with Galra tech up to his thigh. Lance shot off the medical table and looked around, deciding against his better judgement to leave the room and look around.

A couple minutes after Lance left the room he deemed that the Galra tech arm and leg he had were hallucinations due to stress, they had to be, he could walk normally and everything felt perfectly normal. 

Lance walked down one of the hallways and heard feminine voices speaking in hushed tones, Lance put on his best smile and opened the door. 

“Hello, ladies. The name is Lance.” He winked and did finger guns at them. They didn’t respond and just looked at him. 

“Azula, isn’t this the human you were telling me about?” A woman with orange skin spoke. 

“Yes it is, Ora.” One with blue skin and what looked sort of like a slightly long pixie cut replied. 

“So are you all going to honor me with your names or do i have to earn it from you beautiful women.” Lance spoke again, smiling widely. 

“Zilpha, I believe he is trying to woo us.” A lady with a hood up spoke softly.

“Shush, Vada, we don’t want Lotor to hear.” She looked the most ripped, but she also seemed gentle. 

“Listen, if you all are intimidated by Prince Lotion, don’t be. I’m sure he’ll be okay with me... raising my particle barrier a little for four beautiful women with intriguing names.” Lance spoke as all of the women stiffed and sat up straighter in their seats. 

“Prince Lotion..?” A masculine voice spoke out into the room. Lance’s eyes got wide as he turned around to face Lotor. 

Lotor stood behind Lance with his arms crossed, a frown set into his features. “I do not believe that it is appropriate to flirt with my generals, especially when you’re already claimed.” Lotor narrowed his eyes at Lance. The slightly shorter man gave a confused glance to him.

“What do you mean “claimed”? I’m not dating anyone?” Lance said, tilting his head to the side and furrowing his brows. 

“What do you mean you’re not dating anyone? You’re mine.” Lotor spoke before turning to the generals “I need to go make sure my Lance is settled into his new arm and leg and teach him a bit about Galra dating.” Lotor smiled a bit and grabbed Lance’s left arm, tugging on it and closing the door.

“Do they feel okay?” Lotor asked, glancing to Lance who was looking at his arm in disbelief.

“Yeah… I thought they were just hallucinations, I didn’t realize that I had actually lost my arm and leg…” Lance trailed off and shook his head a little, he could live with this, it would be okay and he would make it, he’ll ask Shiro questions when… well if he gets back.

“ One of the sentries shot you at least twice, your limbs were too far gone to be healed. Also, saving a life twice consists as an act of claiming someone in my culture. I saved your life when you were boarded on my ship and once again when you tried to escape. How do Earth dating customs work?” Lotor questioned, intrigued in how this worked on the planet that Lance was from (Lotor did some research while waiting for the sentries to be reprogrammed). 

“Well, usually both parties have to like each other, then they go out on a couple dates and they might kiss, then someone asks the other if they want to date.” Lance tried to explain as basically as he could. Lotor grinned and looked at him.

“Lance, will you be my... boyfriend is it? I believe so.” Lotor questioned himself and peered at Lance. 

“I mean you said you claimed me so I guess I have no real choice in the matter.” Lance mumbled.

“Is that a yes?” Lotor said excitedly before shaking his head “Wait! We didn’t kiss yet, didn’t you say that on Earth you kiss before you claim each other?” Lance awkwardly nodded.

Lance had to admit that Lotor was handsome and he seemed sort of soft, but strict. Lotor seemed more open and happy around Lance then he did around people like Azula and Ora. He seemed to have a certain delicateness that wasn’t visible with anyone else, his whole figure relaxed and his eyes always soften upon looking at Lance. 

Lance could see maybe one day the two courting each other properly, but that day was not today. Although it did seem highly unlikely that he was going to get out of this situation. “Do you know how to kiss?” Lance asked Lotor in which Lotor nodded in response.

“You do this.” Lotor said before cupping Lance’s cheek and swiftly connecting their lips in a soft kiss. Lance guessed he really couldn’t get himself out of this situation now.


End file.
